Quran vs Bible — Which Scripture is Preserved?

Christianity teaches that the Bible — both Old and New Testaments — is the inspired, authoritative word of God. The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was preserved by the Jewish people over millennia, and the New Testament was preserved through early Christian manuscripts. God's word is described as eternal and unchanging.

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."

— Isaiah 40:8 (ESV) — Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (c. 8th century BCE)

"For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

— Matthew 5:18 (ESV) — Gospel of Matthew (c. 70–90 CE)

"I have come to do your will, O God."

— Hebrews 10:7 (ESV) — Letter to the Hebrews (quoting Psalm 40:6–8)

"I say to you, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to fall."

— Luke 16:17 (ESV) — Gospel of Luke (c. 80–90 CE)

"Your word, O Lord, stands firm in the heavens."

— Psalm 119:89 (ESV) — Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

"The statutes of the Lord are true, all of them firmly established."

— Psalm 119:160 (ESV)

Manuscript Evidence for Biblical Preservation

Hebrew Bible — Dead Sea Scrolls (1947–1956):

In 1947, Bedouin shepherds discovered jars containing ancient scrolls in caves near Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Over the next decade, additional caves were explored, revealing approximately 981 distinct texts dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. These include fragments from every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther — making it the oldest known collection of Hebrew Scriptures.

The most spectacular find was the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaiahᵃ), a nearly complete copy of the Book of Isaiah written on 16 sheets of parchment, measuring approximately 24 inches wide and 24 feet long. Paleographers dated it to c. 125 BCE — nearly 1,000 years older than the oldest previously known Hebrew manuscripts, the Masoretic Text compiled by Jewish scribes around 900 CE.

When scholar Millar Burrows and later Eugene Ulrich's team compared 1QIsaiahᵃ with the Masoretic Text, the results were staggering: the texts matched word-for-word in over 95% of the content. The remaining 5% consisted almost entirely of minor differences — spelling variations, grammatical forms, and a handful of small additions or omissions — none of which affected meaning or doctrine. One entire chapter (Isaiah 61) had an extra sentence in 1QIsaiahᵃ, but otherwise the texts were essentially identical across a millennium of transmission.

This was not an isolated case. Dozens of other scrolls from Qumran — including fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Psalms, and prophets — confirmed that the Hebrew Bible was transmitted with extraordinary fidelity. The Dead Sea Scrolls effectively ended scholarly claims that the Old Testament had been significantly altered over the centuries.

Codex Vaticanus (c. 325–350 CE):

Codex Vaticanus is one of the two oldest nearly complete Bibles in existence (along with Codex Sinaiticus, c. 330 CE). Written in Greek on prepared animal parchment inUncial (capital) letters, it contains most of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and most of the New Testament. It is considered one of the most important witnesses to the original text of both the Old and New Testaments because it was copied within roughly 200 years of the earliest New Testament writings.

New Testament — 5,800+ Greek Manuscripts:

The New Testament has more manuscript evidence than any other work of ancient literature. The breakdown:

• ~5,800 Greek manuscripts — complete, partial, or fragmentary. Including the earliest papyri (fragments on papyrus parchment) and later codices (bound books).

• Earliest fragment — P52 (John Rylands Papyrus): Dated to c. 125–150 CE, containing John 18:31–33, 37–38. This is within 30–60 years of the traditionally dated composition of the Gospel of John (~90–120 CE). The existence of a fragment of John in Egypt by 125 CE means the Gospel must have been written and circulated widely within a few decades — not centuries.

• Earliest complete NT codices — Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330 CE) and Codex Vaticanus (c. 325–350 CE): Both contain nearly the entire New Testament. They were produced less than 300 years after the apostles wrote.

• ~10,000 Latin manuscripts and ~9,300 manuscripts in other languages (Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, etc.), totaling over 25,000 total manuscript witnesses.

Comparison to Other Ancient Texts:

The closest ancient secular text by manuscript count is Homer's Iliad at ~1,800 copies, but its earliest manuscripts date ~400–500 years after the original. Herodotus's Histories has ~8 copies in the first 1,000 years. Thucydides's Peloponnesian War has ~8 copies. Tacitus's Annals has ~1 copy. Pliny the Younger has ~25. For ancient works generally, 10 copies is considered excellent.

The New Testament's manuscript evidence is in a category of its own — not just in quantity (over 25,000 total witnesses), but in proximity (fragments within decades, complete texts within ~300 years). This level of evidence is unique among ancient literature and provides an extraordinarily strong foundation for textual reliability.

Codex Vaticanus (c. 325–350 CE) and Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330 CE) represent the oldest nearly complete Bibles. They preserve most of the Old and New Testaments within two centuries of the earliest New Testament manuscripts. The gap between the original writings and the oldest complete texts is measured in centuries, not millennia — a stark contrast to the thousand-year gap that was bridged by the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Hebrew Bible.